Since about the age of 18, I have been an ardent supporter of Arby’s.

At UD, many days I would eat there for breakfast lunch and dinner and I still lunch there occasionally. So with all the money I have poured into the place, I have an unofficially vested interest in any branding change, regardless of your opinions of my eating habits.

So when I saw this hideous excuse for a logo change, I asked why? I asked it for two reasons.

1. The current logo describes very nicely the food and ambiance of the stores, especially the newer stores.

2. The new logo looks like crap. I tried to be more artful than that but words failed me.

The new logo is crap and it doesn’t matter what their new branding direction is – if the chain is not going to be Arby’s, then change the name and menu and move on. But if you plan on remaining Arby’s, true to the iconic nature of your brand (build with comparatively little branding vs. it’s main competitors in the fast-food area) then tweak the logo if you must.

Keeping the hat and changing the word mark in this way is more than a tweak, it’s a bastardization and if I was a franchisee with the looming costs involved in changing signage to this new craptastic logo, I would be pissed!

You can offer a differing opinion, but you’ll be wrong! 😉

Tags: advertising, branding, logo design, marketing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Are you plagued by those little business oriented tasks that you never get around to even after months or years?

You know, the simple stuff that for whatever reason never seems to get accomplished?

Well, you probably don’t have that problem but I do.

Or in one instance, I can now say, I DID have that problem but now I can check it off my list.

When Mrs. audio’connell and I have purchased new cars, we’ve always agreed that the dealership did NOT get to put their logoed license plate frame or logoed sticker on our cars. It’s only because the dealership wouldn’t pay our $15,000 advertising fee (we go lots of cool places in our cars and our bumpers are seen by all the beautiful and influential people). We thought $15K a very reasonable rate considering it was a one time fee that would cover the life of the car. We even offered to let them take it off invoice.

And yet, no takers.

So our cars are un-dealerized. But I respected the value of that ad space/real estate and I vowed one day, I would claim that space for my own.

I think we bought our last car three years ago so how am I doing on THAT to-do list?!

Well under the category of better late than never, Da’s car now has a lovely etched (high falutin’!) customized license plate frame.

No, we didn’t pay the extra fee for a customized plate (that feels like giving away money to NY State) and no, we will do whatever it takes to AVOID New York State’s fugly orange and blue 1970’s color license plates.

But I like the simple and subtle message on the new plate frame that may not get everyone’s attention…just that special someone, with a voice-over need and a checkbook.

Tags: advertising, branding, commentary, marketing, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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So back in June my friend and fellow voice talent Doug Turkel pinged me about Twitter’s new logo. It’s nice, simple and, I thought to myself given all the different feed services and mobile devices we all use now, maybe a tad irrelevant.

Think about it.

With no scientific data to back this up (because that requires work and this is Sunday etc.) I’ll offer my “expert” (ha!) opinion: I feel with services like HootSuite and others, most of us don’t directly and visually interact with Twitter alot. So I don’t know that we’ll see the new logo too terribly much.

That got me to thinking about MY Twitter home page. As you may or may not know, Twitter allows you to customize your home page with some branding. (Here’s a link to a video if you want to see how it’s done otherwise your graphic designer can probably help you too).

Does my (or yours or anyone’s) home page on Twitter matter any more in our world of feeds or aggregators? Well, I kinda think it does for two reasons…again my “expert” (ha!) opinion.

1. When you’re a business, people expect a certain professionalism to your work. Your design not only conveys what your business does but also it’s attitude and personality. Should someone come across your Twitter page, an impression will be formed. Do you want to risk a bad impression? Probably not but if you really don’t care, I’d also ask why you’d really want a business presence on any Social Media channel.

2. It’s a free, colorful and fun way to convey your business message. It’s so simple that even if only 10 people see it a year, to me it’s money well spent.

Oh, and just in case you are completely clueless (it will be our secret) one of Twitter’s default backgrounds on your Twitter home page is the fastest way ever to publicly communicate that in your personal life you also wear plaid shirts with checked pants.

Dress nicely if you go out in public. 😉

I would love to know your thoughts on the matter.

Tags: advertising, branding, commentary, logo design, marketing, twitter by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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It’s not everyday that a major corporation changes its logo. Although throughout its history, Microsoft has had it’s share of logos.

But last week when I saw they’d crafted a new identity, I kinda smiled.

At the beginning of August, I was in Seattle and my hotel was next to the Microsoft campus in Redmond. I didn’t make the time to drive around (which I’m sure I’ll end up regretting) but I saw so many Microsoft signs.

I quickly tabulated, when the new logo was revealed, how much it was going to cost the company to do a signage overhaul across the globe (not even counting the packaging changes).

Boy, there were a lot of people who could live a simple and happy life just off the interest earned from that signage bill.

But ya gotta keep the brand fresh and relevant. And the new look is nice, I think. Here’s a little more info on the logo.

Tags: branding, commentary, logo design, marketing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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It has been a while since I’ve seen a new logo or revised logo worth talking about on these pages. I know many readers are voiceover-centric and not quote the logo addict I seem to have become. As addictions go, it’s not a bad one.

As many of you also know I have a soft spot in my heart for the American Red Cross and the work they do. So when I saw recently on Brand New the updated logo for the American Red Cross, I thought I’d take a second to chat it up with you.

Of course for many of a certain age, if they think about it, this is the only American Red Cross logo they’ve known and by and large, it has been pretty consistent. So a change on this puppy is noteworthy.

What I noted right off the bat were three things: the cross surrounded by the modern, shadowed button icon made popular by icons designed for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, et al; the change of the color or the word mark from black to gray and the darkened red of the Red Cross.

The button reminded me, as I said, of social media logos but also I recall (I think) seeing pins like that on people’s jackets or sweaters at the Red Cross, so I was cool with it.

The graying of the word mark seems intent on making it modern, and I get it. I think the black made it stand out more and it’s a name I don’t think should be put in the background. I believe they changed their font to this current font on their last logo change and I think they were smart not to change that in this iteration.

What I am really undecided about is the darker red. The red in the Red Cross is the ball game. I get that there needed to be shading on the red to help with the button design but it just strikes me as too dark. The vibrancy of the red is the key to the whole icon.

Overall, a nice change. But that’s my opinion…what’s yours?

Tags: advertising, branding, commentary, logo design, marketing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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My friend and bilingual voiceover talent Liz deNesnera recently achieved one of her written goals from Faffcon 3 which was to redesign her web site and rebrand her company.

Take a look for yourself but I think she did a very nice job.

Tags: advertising, branding, marketing, social media, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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